Almost 17,000 votes were cast by Reg readers when we asked you all to name the best - and the worst - tech products of 2012.
We asked you to tell us which kit you though most warranted a Reg Hardware Award from shortlists in a variety of categories: laptop, tablet, e-reader, home entertainment device and smartphone, but we also …

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Lemmings

Ah, Lemmings. I still have a copy somewhere, must hunt it out for some nostalgia this evening.

One thing that was fun about the Amiga version was that you could plug two mice into the system and play a two-player version, trying to tunnel under the other player's team or block them up, while racing for the exit yourself. Did any other platforms have that option?

Re: Lemmings

Great game that! I know thats what i voted for. And no, the pc version was 1 player only as far as I recall.

I just remember all the spinnoff's from lemmings. Lemmings Paintball, 3D Lemmings. I am still however waiting for the original to be ported to Android so that I can kill... err I mean save some lemmings on the way in to work. I did however find a working version of Star Control II for the droid the other day and am currently loving that!

The Apple what?

Re: The Apple what?

It is a recognition that the Fandroids and Apple haters (not always the same people) now dominate the readership of the Register, and that they are sufficiently motivated/obsessed/crazy/... (choose appropriate epithet) to make the effort to denigrate Apple at every opportunity.

Re: The Apple what?

Re: The Apple what? (@Anon Coward 09:52 GMT)

Fixed that for you:

Philip Lewis, has it ever occurred to you that maybe there are just a lot of people who don't like Google's products, and prefer those of their competitors?

When people feel the need to defend their beloved Google by dismissing everyone who doesn't adore them as "Google haters", it reminds me of the term "Suppressive Person" used by certain other fanatics.

Re: The Apple what? (@Anon Coward 09:52 GMT)

There's a distinct difference between preferring another manufacturers product(s) and hating a particular company. The former is perfectly normal behaviour and fair comment (you preferred the GSIII to the iPhone? Fair enough, it's your money), but the latter is a form of fanaticism.

Re: The Apple what?

"dismissing everyone who doesn't adore them as "Apple haters""

I did no such thing. Complete comprehension fail on your part AC.

I merely pointed out that The Register readership who are motivated to post in the forums (and vote) are a very special subset of reality. The comments and up/downvoting behaviour in the Register forums are more than enough evidence of this.

A characteristic of people with a passionate dislike of something (or conflicting passion for its competitor) is that they are willing to go out of their way to let everyone know their opinion. Opinion polls always register this, which is why proper opinion polls are designed specifically to recognise and filter out this type of deviant response.

The Register forums are packed with commentards ranting and raving (that is part of the purpose of the forums) and voting up/down based on this precise behaviour characteristic. Casual empiricism suggests they dominate by a large margin.

Anyone with an understanding of the Register readership as evidenced by forum activity could predict with high accuracy the result of the "dodo Award". It's not news or even remotely interesting except for The Register owners/editors themselves who knew this already.

Re: The Apple what?

"Apple winning laptop of the year surely disproves your theory."

It does no such thing. Logic FAIL of massive proportions.

The opportunity to denigrate Apple in the poll was the Dodo Award. The Award is designed to let people with a need to vent and opportunity to do so. The question counts down votes in essence. In this case with an absolutely predictable result.

It is logically consistent to think the MacBook Pro (or any other Apple device) as the best in class and indeed vote for it for that matter, and still be motivated to denigrate Apple at every opportunity. One can't "not vote" for the MacBook as best in class. You can just vote for something else. The people who like something different than the MacBook are as fragmented as the market. It is highly probable that the anti-Apple vote that would be manifested by votes for competing products and would be numerically larger than the votes for the MacBook, but no single product would be more popular because of this voting segment.

Have you understood your error yet, or do I need an etch-a-sketch (tm)?

Re: The Apple what? @Goldmember

Re: The Apple what?

I will agree with Mr Lewis here, I do think this is an indication of the Reg readership. Well, I am going to add some more fuel to the fire. As well as being a faithful follower of El Reg I have also been a subscriber to Which for the last twenty years. Over the years I have found these people quite reliable when they produce tests and comparisons. Ok, I agree that they may not be as technically inclined as the commentards here but that's not their audience. The one thing that keeps cropping up when they they test laptops, desktops, tablets and smartphones is that Apple keeps coming up near the top of their recommendations, if not the top.

It's not all unbridled praise from Which though, they do criticize Apple for a number of points that will be familiar to the Reg readership, particularly cost and upgrade ability of the recent consumer items. But it is noticeable that Apple kit fares well in their direct comparisons of kit.

As a whole though it does tend to recommend Apple products to a wider audience than the Reg readers, an audience that may be looking for a simpler experience with their computing kit and may not have a problem about such ideas as a "walled garden" (in fact they may even appreciate it as means of providing a level of security for their devices).

Now, I can see the reaction to this already. "Which are Apple shills/apologists", etc. Knowing the Consumer Association (the organisation that produces Which) I don't think so, they are fiercely independent and brook no nonsense when it comes to that kind of thing.

My position on this?

Neutrality with regard to tech, I have to work with Windows, Apple and Ubuntu boxes and I can see the ups and downs of all three platforms (but that's another post...). But, as I said, I do find Which to be reliable, I have used a lot of their recommendations when buying washing machines, TVs, DVD recorders and other stuff over the years and have not been disappointed (I have also taken their switching services advice and am quite happy with it). So I cannot ignore their comments over Apple.

If you want to call me a Which shill, that's ok, I've done well by them over the years.

Re: The Apple what?

Which bit wasn't a black eye?

The tedious little note added to their site regarding a UK court hearing that suggested UK courts are rubbish? (Which i don't particularly disagree with, they are, but it's not for Apple to be hinting at that).

The whole maps issue?

The lackluster release of products this last year doing nothing to really innovate at all? (Not that i am saying any company actually did, Samsung probably did more than Apple in the last year though, like it or hate it).

The continuation of these pointless, pointless court cases?

I could probably go on but i can't be bothered to go digging. Apple have had a bad year, both technology wise and PR wise. Maybe you need to start actually looking at what Apple did over the last year before you start trying to summon a hoard of fan boys frothing at the mouth from your imagination to explain survey results as anything other than they are.

Re: The Apple what?

Given your prolific activity on this particular forum Philip one might suggest that you yourself are "sufficiently motivated/obsessed/crazy"

Maybe you want to tone it down a little to avoid the Fanboi label?

I'm a little surprised that Apple won the rusty dodo award, although maybe people are getting sick of the marketing hype and the lack of interoperability of Apple products, or perhaps everything else was just mediocre and nobody was compelled to suggest a particular product that was bad enough for a consensus to be formed, there probably hasn't been enough time for the Surface tablets to reach that stage, give it a year.

Re: The Apple what?

I suspect it's more likely that 12,000 of the 17,000 respondents where all from Anna Leach hitting the submit button over and over and over and over while laughing maniacally and stroking a white cat....

Re: The Apple what?

Re: The Apple what? @Goldmember

Oh dear, you are a very angry little fanboi, aren't you? So what you're saying is that the same 'Apple-haters' who wish to denigrate Apple at every opportunity, are so awe-inspired by the power of the holy Macbook that they feel the need to vote for it as best laptop, in spite of their 'motivated/obsessed/ crazy' urges to do everything but? And you accuse my logic of being flawed...

I, for example, dislike Apple, was never a fan and never bought any of their products... until the ipad 1, since upgraded to the third version, but I still think Apple are a douchebag company and wanna believe that Google does 'less evil' than other corporations.

Re: The Apple what?

I think it is a mixture of people realising the shiny 'ithing' isn't that ground breaking anymore, coupled with the real annoyance by world & dog of Apple trying to sue everybody, repeatedly for any reason they can possibly think of, and their general disregard for anyone or anything in their path to total patent apocalypse.

Re: The Apple what? @Goldmember

Re: The Apple what?

Your response is "conflicted". It does not contradict the quote, nor is it in any in conflict with the post containing the quote. I agree with most of your post. You have failed to grasp that the statement is much broader in scope than just the Register readers/posters. "reality" is quite large.

Re: The Apple what?

I don't believe it is the products that they don't like, it is the company.

Can't it be both?

I don't like Apple products (after the Apple //e, which was pretty nice). They're entirely wrong for me: they're not designed to do what I want to do, or to do it the ways I want to do it. Of course that says nothing about their appeal for anyone else, but I'm quite happy to go on the record saying I don't like the products.

I don't like Apple the company. I don't care for their litigious behavior, and I find their marketing smug and obnoxious.

Of course, there aren't many companies I do like, and there are few electronic gadgets for which I feel anything more than tolerance for their faults. That's one reason why I don't vote in surveys like this one. (The others are that I don't have experience with enough products to make my opinions useful, and that I'd much rather spend my time being contentious after the fact in the forums.)

But my point is that there are reasons to dislike Apple products, and to dislike Apple as an organization, and either or both could have motivated any one of those votes. Then again, some people might have just done it to annoy Philip Lewis; that's a real temptation.

Best mobile provider...

Re: Best mobile provider...

If you think Three are bad I would avoid EE/Orange like the plague. Orange will happily admit their own mistake and then send out credit companies one after the other... for years to get a hold of money they admit isnt owed.

Re: Best mobile provider...

HAHAHAA,,,

Certainly some mistake there.... Just now I am being transferred to the 4th "customer support" person in this call alone. (total calls are 5, going back 4 months now!) After reconfirming name, address, postcode, phone number, date of birth ad naseum as well as the long sob story of how they £$%^ up a simple upgrade, each and every time only to be told I've got to yet another "wrong department"..

Absolutely horrible and I can't imagine how they've been awarded anything other that "fucking useless twats".

Re: Best mobile provider...

But they've got better customer support than Vodafone!

Then again, so do Al Qaeda... Press 1 if you are missing a limb. Press 2 if your 72 virgins have not been delivered yet. Press 3 for enquiries on beard care. Press 4 for your birthday Osamagram. Press 5 for expenses reclaiming.

5. While you are waiting to be connected the leadership would like to remind all members that First Class travel IS NOT PERMITTED YOU INFIDEL DOGS OF SATAN!!!!! Any member who attempts to claim for this sky-harem of the evil one (may he be cursed to eternal damnation!) will be sent to HR and terminated with prejudice! We are aware that 1st class passengers are allowed metal cutlery, but it is a good member's duty to provide his own in-flight weaponry.

[hmmmm. Perhaps I shouldn't have eaten all that cheese I found under the cooker?]